Helping ourselves;

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18 HASKINS & SELLS March
Helping Ourselves
By E . L . KINCAID, C . P. A.
(In-charge Accountant, Newark Office)
ABOUT November 15 of each year
nervous tension begins to creep upon
most of the in-charge accountants in our
organization, exacting heavy toll from those
affected by its mental and physical weaken­ing
processes. The reason for this condi­tion
is that we are again at the beginning of
a busy season with its large number of new
engagements, all engagements demand­ing
more exacting attention owing to our
steadily improving methods of procedure.
However, the time element involved in this
immense amount of work remains compara­tively
stationary. This latter condition is
due principally to the provisions of the
Federal income tax law.
The serious problem is up for solution
again: that of completing each engagement
in the allotted time and still maintaining
the standard of service required. Para­phrasing
a famous French resolution, we
may assert, "It shall be solved!" This
means added responsibility for every mem­ber
of the organization. But undoubtedly
we are safe in saying that the brunt of
this responsibility falls on the in-charge
accountants. The purpose of this article
is to suggest a partial solution of this
serious problem, which seems to be growing
more complex with each passing year.
We acknowledge that the best solution
would be the general adoption of the
natural business year advocated by one of
the founders of our organization, the late
Elijah Watt Sells. This plan is coming
more and more into general use, and in
time no doubt will solve the serious annual
problem in question. However, temporary
relief must be provided pending the general
adoption of the natural business year.
This relief must come through "helping
ourselves."
Just before the busy season each year
our personnel department is overburdened
with requests from our practice offices for
experienced in-charge accountants. The
supply available always falls far short of
the demand. The reason for this dearth
of men is to be found in the rigid qualifi­cations
which Haskins & Sells insist that
their in-charge accountants must meet.
What is the solution of this lack of
properly qualified men? Obviously, we
must develop our assistant accountants in
a shorter time than has been our wont.
Then when the busy season rushes in upon
us, threatening to trample us under, we
can utilize our trained assistants and, with
a minimum of supervision, render to
clients a better service than is possible
through the application of almost super­human
efforts on the part of the in-charge
accountants, in which they necessarily tend
to lose some of their astuteness.
The technical procedure department is
doing notable work for our organization,
but because of its lack of contact with the
majority of our assistant accountants, we
cannot expect this department to undertake
the development of the individual assistant.
The assistant must be trained while
employed at his daily work, through
thoughtful direction, planning, and instruc­tion
by the manager, supervising account­ant,
and in-charge accountant. It is
admitted that this supposedly is the man­ner
in which the assistant is trained at
present, unintentionally so perhaps in a
majority of cases.
Generally the manager and in-charge
accountant attack an engagement with the
sole thought of completing it as soon as
possible, rendering, of course, our usual
standard of service. The feeling often is